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Crap. Click "Keep me signed in." Doesn't work. Have to sign-in every time I go back. And WORSE: in the last few minutes, it repeatedly tells me the password or username is incorrect. Marvelous. The "improvements," when one IS able to sign-in, only make it more difficult to find what you're looking for. The rest of the time, they won't let you in. Pfffffft.
Had the same, multiple sign in experience as you until this morning. Tech staff has been most helpful addressing some issues I experienced. Was just about to ask the board for recommendations for other sites that offer portfolio tracking. Lots more ads on the pages now which had to have played a part in the " improvements." So far have not found the old prospectus links so using brokerage platforms for that research.
I’ve reluctantly gone to maintaining 2 trackers. Really like the Active Portfolio app from Apple for a few dollars (purchase price) plus $10 - $20 a year to go ad-free. However, I don’t think it would operate outside the Apple ecosystem. Even this excellent tracker experiences an occasional bad day or two. So I keep a few basics at M* for fallback. M* is clunky compared to the first.
FYI M* did another 'upgrade' this week and much of the functionality is broken and/or no longer there or easily available. Several threads expressing anger, frustration, and more are in full-swing over there -- and rightfully so. We saw a similar situation a few years ago when, after years of tech problems, they 'updated' part of the site and made things worse.
As a longtime forum regular and current sponsor of the B/S/W thread, I've already told folks I am less inclined to be involved over there anymore. The forum software sucks, is too game-i-fied for the younger crowd ("look! you've earned the First Post/First Response/You-Changed-Your-Avatar badge!") and I have no regrets letting my Premium lapse there back in 2016 either.
Tech problems aside they seemed to start going downhill when their 2 main newsletters, MDI and MSI, were changed to comply with SEC regulations once M* decided to start managing people's money as a service.
M* was a useful service for research, data, and sometimes analysis. No more.
@rono I completely agree. Your penultimate paragraph echoes and adds to a comment I made there - that M*'s business model has changed. As a result, it seems to care less about retail customers. It is as though, by removing the more substantial (deeper) data and research capabilities, M* is actively trying to drive away premium subscribers.
I can live with the UI changes, despite the increased pain to navigate to what's left of the useful information. But there's no workaround for data that's vanished.
I don't pay for premium membership, courtesy of T. Rowe Price. For the first time, I'm seriously considering walking away from that. Consolidation (now that TRP is NTF elsewhere) is beginning to look more valuable than a rapidly depreciating premium membership.
I use M* BECAUSE of the free-premium, because I'm with TRP. Of course, I'm free to go looking elsewhere for the info I need, too. I don't notice the ads on the M* page: I use my trusty ad-blocker. Looks like I will be spending more time on other webpages. Someone said it looks like they WANT to chase people away. Ya.
Morningstar has treated its forum like an ugly stepchild for a long time. For that reason and others, I visit the site much less frequently. The main draw for me is the M* Portfolio Manager, and I would seldom visit the site if that became disabled. The other problem for me is some of the M* forum’s self-professed experts, who are very rude, condescending and ever-present. I appreciate a diversity of opinions, even if they are very different than mine, but not when they are rude and nasty about it.
Because I need to use a bastard version of Firefox on this ancient Apple G5 I thought that the problems might be here, so I didn't raise the question on MFO. The situation here is pretty much like Crash describes- repeated efforts to log in, inability to stay logged in, and generally crappy performance overall.
Their old site had so many scripts running it was insane. Glad I blocked most of them to make it usable for so many years.
@Tar, agree. Though happy to see the level of vitriol there seemed to drop down with the new site, for whatever reason. It's NOTHING like it was off-and-on in recent years, thankfully.
Because I need to use a bastard version of Firefox on this ancient Apple G5 I thought that the problems might be here, so I didn't raise the question on MFO. The situation here is pretty much like Crash describes- repeated efforts to log in, inability to stay logged in, and generally crappy performance overall.
There is a way to get to most of the old pages (courtesy of a post in a M* forum thread). Start with the page below. Most of the tabs for other pages for the fund still work, but the quote, chart, and distribution pages are gone.
As a kid I was an avid reader of science fiction. At around 10 or so started with Jules Verne's "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea" and went from there. Very familiar with the concept of reality being altered or terminated without notice, usually courtesy of some governmental action.
Well, we're there. Or here. Or somewhere. Let's be sure to blindly follow the technological gurus, get rid of hard drives and local storage in your very own computer, and put everything into the cloud under the control of... who, exactly? What could possibly go wrong?
But don't forget it's now very easy to get the "Carbon Risk Score" and the "Fossil Fuel Involvement" rating -- two very crucial data points to consider when evaluating a mutual fund.
But don't forget it's now very easy to get the "Carbon Risk Score" and the "Fossil Fuel Involvement" rating -- two very crucial data points to consider when evaluating a mutual fund.
Is true that the "Purchase" function is no longer a part of fund's profile on M*? I have often relied on this button to show all share classes of a fund. I don't see it these days.
Seems, the claimed new and improved product has not only had system glitches ... it also ... seems to now offers less content. In addition, it took it an extended period of time for me to pull my portfolio up for viewing yesterday evening. With this, I checked what M* indicated my valuation was against what was refected at my broker. I was indeed surprise when my mutual fund prices matched. At least something seems to still be working. But, at times, in the past I have found that it has not.
They claim that the new version is improved; but, for me they are providing less features and content. With this, I'm thinking that perhaps some of their larger paying users have been complaining that they were providing to much "free" content to retail investors. Notice, too, that the Wall Street Journal now provides less data now under their new version for market data over their old version.
Thank goodness there are still other sources that provide meaningful market and mutual fund information that the retail investor can still access without having to rely solely on M* and the WSJ. But, they are becoming fewer and fewer.
Is true that the "Purchase" function is no longer a part of fund's profile on M*? I have often relied on this button to show all share classes of a fund. I don't see it these days.
Apparently that's the case. It might work to type the name of the fund into the quote search box on the home page, but I've found that avenue less than reliable for a good long while. For example, earlier I typed "Pimco Income" there (expecting to see PIMIX, PONAX, etc. as hits) and the only hit was the Pimco Income Strategy CEF.
@AndyJ: there seem to be all sorts of glitches. One that trips me up constantly is the "chart" function that fails to recognize a fund's symbols for the purpose of running a comparison. The app for iPad is also faulty and won't open on the "quote" page. I have buyer's regret.
Is true that the "Purchase" function is no longer a part of fund's profile on M*? I have often relied on this button to show all share classes of a fund. I don't see it these days.
Apparently that's the case. It might work to type the name of the fund into the quote search box on the home page, but I've found that avenue less than reliable for a good long while. For example, earlier I typed "Pimco Income" there (expecting to see PIMIX, PONAX, etc. as hits) and the only hit was the Pimco Income Strategy CEF.
@ msf, good that the old pages are still alive. I don't have any old links, so thanks, I'll hold onto that one.
I wonder if the old pages will still populate with current data after the first of the month. There's hope: I see there's a current price on one of the chart pages I went to from msf's link.
From that PIMIX link, if you hit "Quote," it takes you to the new Quote page and you're back in the new system. The old quote pages must have been wiped out.
@AndyJ: there seem to be all sorts of glitches. One that trips me up constantly is the "chart" function that fails to recognize a fund's symbols for the purpose of running a comparison. The app for iPad is also faulty and won't open on the "quote" page. I have buyer's regret.
@Ben, I also had that experience with the new chart page I tried. But, you can use msf's link to get to the old chart pages. I don't know if they'll update the performance, but I do see a current (today's) price on the one old chart page I checked out.
Comments
FYI M* did another 'upgrade' this week and much of the functionality is broken and/or no longer there or easily available. Several threads expressing anger, frustration, and more are in full-swing over there -- and rightfully so. We saw a similar situation a few years ago when, after years of tech problems, they 'updated' part of the site and made things worse.
As a longtime forum regular and current sponsor of the B/S/W thread, I've already told folks I am less inclined to be involved over there anymore. The forum software sucks, is too game-i-fied for the younger crowd ("look! you've earned the First Post/First Response/You-Changed-Your-Avatar badge!") and I have no regrets letting my Premium lapse there back in 2016 either.
Tech problems aside they seemed to start going downhill when their 2 main newsletters, MDI and MSI, were changed to comply with SEC regulations once M* decided to start managing people's money as a service.
M* was a useful service for research, data, and sometimes analysis. No more.
Regards,
Ted
I can live with the UI changes, despite the increased pain to navigate to what's left of the useful information. But there's no workaround for data that's vanished.
I don't pay for premium membership, courtesy of T. Rowe Price. For the first time, I'm seriously considering walking away from that. Consolidation (now that TRP is NTF elsewhere) is beginning to look more valuable than a rapidly depreciating premium membership.
"What do cats, women, and Morningstar have in common?
They do just as they please, and the rest of us better get used to the idea."
Their old site had so many scripts running it was insane. Glad I blocked most of them to make it usable for so many years.
@Tar, agree. Though happy to see the level of vitriol there seemed to drop down with the new site, for whatever reason. It's NOTHING like it was off-and-on in recent years, thankfully.
http://performance.morningstar.com/fund/performance-return.action?t=TSCXX®ion=usa&culture=en-US
As a kid I was an avid reader of science fiction. At around 10 or so started with Jules Verne's "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea" and went from there. Very familiar with the concept of reality being altered or terminated without notice, usually courtesy of some governmental action.
Well, we're there. Or here. Or somewhere. Let's be sure to blindly follow the technological gurus, get rid of hard drives and local storage in your very own computer, and put everything into the cloud under the control of... who, exactly? What could possibly go wrong?
Appropos to this thread, I just posted this:
https://www.mutualfundobserver.com/discuss/discussion/51382/i-punched-out-of-m-forums#latest
... and then earn a 'badge' talking about it......
They claim that the new version is improved; but, for me they are providing less features and content. With this, I'm thinking that perhaps some of their larger paying users have been complaining that they were providing to much "free" content to retail investors. Notice, too, that the Wall Street Journal now provides less data now under their new version for market data over their old version.
Thank goodness there are still other sources that provide meaningful market and mutual fund information that the retail investor can still access without having to rely solely on M* and the WSJ. But, they are becoming fewer and fewer.
http://financials.morningstar.com/fund/purchase-info.html?t=PIMIX®ion=usa&culture=en-US
For other funds, you can substitute their tickers into the URL, or you can try the search box on this legacy page.
I wonder if the old pages will still populate with current data after the first of the month. There's hope: I see there's a current price on one of the chart pages I went to from msf's link.
From that PIMIX link, if you hit "Quote," it takes you to the new Quote page and you're back in the new system. The old quote pages must have been wiped out.
PHEW WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW